When everything goes according to plan and your business grows, life is good. However, you may not have accounted for the accompanying growing pains. When your office expands and you add new staff, every new hire needs a dedicated phone line to do their job. This means that you need to deal with running more phone lines, keeping your unintuitive phone systems up to date; not to mention the cost of traditional telephone service providers. You?ve probably heard of Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP. VoIP is an affordable phone solution that empowers businesses of all sizes with a scalable, extremely feature-rich phone system. VoIP phones use your network to transmit data. So instead of needing to run traditional telephone lines to new desks, you can use the same connection your computer uses. This dramatically reduces the cost of expanding your office. With VoIP, you get lots of great features; call monitoring, conferencing, parking, all the features you?d expect from a larger enterprise-based phone system. Additionally, VoIP is a great solution for the business professional who travels a lot. You can take your VoIP phone with you and plug it into your laptop or Internet connection and use it as if you were at your desk in your office. Using VoIP on the go like this allows you to receive phone calls with your office phone number, meaning that you can take your office with you anywhere where there?s an Internet connection. Best of all, since VoIP is Internet-based, it can drastically reduce your yearly phone bills. White Mountain IT Services would love to get together and talk with you about the different benefits of VoIP and what type of solutions would be the best fit for your needs and budget. Call us today at (603) 889-0800 to learn more.

Choosing a data backup plan isn?t easy, especially when there are so many solutions to choose from. However, we can give you an idea of what you should look for in your data backup solution. Here are three qualities that you want to keep in mind when deciding on data backup for your business. Versatility: Does it Work on a Number of Devices?According to an article by VentureBeat, the business professional has multiple devices which might have corporate data stored on them, including a smartphone, desktop, laptop, and more. Your company?s network-connected devices might have data backup taken care of, but mobile devices can complicate things significantly. Therefore, it?s important to understand how many devices need to be backed up. The best practice is to ensure that any important data is stored in a centralized server that your backup solution handles. A good assessment of your data backup needs is a great place to start investigating. White Mountain IT Services can help your business examine weak points in your current data backup solution, or if you don?t have one in place, we can give you an accurate measure of what your business needs. We can also integrate a mobile backup solution for your business if need be. Security and Privacy: Will Your Backups Be Safe?Security is a top concern for businesses these days, especially in light of the multiple hacks against prominent names in particular industries, like Target, Home Depot, and most recently, Sony. Businesses want only the most quality security services designed to keep their data safe from hackers. This is especially important if you deal with sensitive information, like Social Security numbers or credit cards. White Mountain IT Services?s Backup and Disaster Recovery solution (BDR) not only ensures that your company?s data is backed up, but it also protects it with comprehensive security solutions designed to keep prying eyes away from it. Additionally, we?ll monitor the backups and make sure they work when you need them most. You can rest easy knowing that your data is safely backed up and ready to go in the event of an emergency. Rapid Recovery: How Quickly Can You Return to Operations?A data backup which doesn?t allow for quick and efficient data recovery isn?t a gamble your business should invest in. You want a solution which is consistent and able to get your business back up and running with minimal downtime. As any business owner knows, the sting felt by extended downtime can put a damper on both your day and your budget. White Mountain IT Services offers an enterprise-level backup solution which can act as your server in the event of an unexpected crash. This device allows your business to return to operations within minutes of a disaster, drastically decreasing potential downtime. By keeping these three qualities in mind, you?ll be able to find the right backup solution for your business. White Mountain IT Services?s BDR solution is scalable and designed to fit your specific needs, making it a fail-safe choice for any small or medium-sized business looking to take advantage of an enterprise-level solution. Just give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

Processor magazine digs deeper into what makes advanced malware so much more dangerous than the typical malware you encounter most of the time. Robert Clyde, the international vice president of ISACA, explains how advanced malware operates: ?The nature of advanced malware is that it?s targeted, it?s stealthy, it?s evasive, and it?s adaptive.? All of these traits combined turn the traditional malware variety into a lethal, targeted dose of annoyance designed to bring down even the largest targets. Generic malware is typically created to disrupt a system and wreak general havoc. Unfortunately, advanced malware is far more complex than that. It?s usually designed with a specific target or goal in mind. More often than not, the purpose of this advanced malware is to collect information, infect key systems, or sabotage particular data, and it?s designed to fulfill this purpose in the most convenient and reliable manner possible. The term, ?Advanced Persistent Threats,? might come to mind, and it?s often used to describe threats which aim to meet their goals over an extended period of time, rather than immediately. Defenses put into place against standard malware varieties aren?t the best way to combat these dangerous strains. It?s not uncommon for these threats to cause more trouble as soon as they?re identified, and they can spread the contagion throughout your network by jumping from system to system. This makes it far more difficult to corner and eliminate them. The easiest and most practical way of dealing with these kinds of threats is by taking advantage of White Mountain IT Services?s Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution. This is a four-pronged offensive against malicious entities that can be found online. The first step is to protect your business?s network from getting infiltrated in the first place, and that?s where a powerful firewall comes into play. This acts like a bouncer, keeping only safe and secure data from accessing your network. It also keeps threats from leaving your network if they?ve been detected, allowing for a prompt deletion. Other preventative measures that are taken include integrating a powerful spam blocking solution, as well as a content filtering protocol. This keeps dangerous and persistent spear-phishing threats from targeting you by eliminating the majority of time-wasting and annoying spam, and protects your team from accessing sites which hold potentially malicious code. And, finally, the UTM integrates an enterprise-level antivirus software into your IT strategy which is capable of detecting and eliminating the nastiest threats on the Internet. This helps you maintain control of your network at all times. If you?re not sure about your current network security situation, White Mountain IT Services provides free network security audits that are liability-free. This lets you confirm your suspicions and take steps to prevent the situation from getting worse. If you?re not sure how to proceed, calling White Mountain IT Services is the best decision you can make. We?ll help you locate and exterminate current threats, and take proactive steps toward securing your network from new ones. Just call (603) 889-0800 for more information.

Keep in mind that most online accounts offer a two-factor authentication too, and as is the case with Google, setting up this extra security measure is easy to do. How Google 2-Step Verification WorksGoogle?s 2-Step Verification security feature works by signing in to Google using your password, as you normally would. Before you?re given access to your account, Google will send your phone a temporary security code, via an SMS message, voice call, or mobile app that will complete the login process. Google also gives you the option to have your second step be a Security Key that you insert into your computer?s USB port. The advantage of using 2-Step Verification is that a user will need to have a physical piece of hardware, like your smartphone or USB Security Key, in order to log in. This makes it much more difficult for your account to be hacked because the hacker needs both your password and your phone, which effectively eliminates everybody outside of the people you?re in immediate contact with. How to Get Set Up with 2-Step VerificationGetting set up with Google?s 2-Step account is as easy as logging into your Google account and then going to this URL: https://accounts.google.com/SmsAuthConfig Click on Start setup >> and Google will walk you through the rest. This will include giving Google your phone number so they can send you an SMS message every time you sign in. Be sure to have your phone handy before clicking on the Start setup icon. It?s important to keep in mind that Google’s 2-Step Verification isn?t limited to SMS messages. When setting up this security feature, you will be presented with the option to use your landline phone number to retrieve your second step login code via an automated phone call from Google. Additionally, if you plan on using your Google account while traveling, you can print off a set of one-time-use codes from the account security page. Remember that other online accounts offer two-factor authentication as well. To achieve the highest online security possible for your accounts, we highly recommend that you take advantage of this security feature everywhere that it?s offered. If you would like help setting up your company with two-factor authentication for its online accounts, as well as setting up other network security solutions that pull the rug out from underneath the hackers, give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800.

It All Goes to One PlaceIn the same way that many printers used in businesses are connected to a network made up of multiple printers, an organization with an office big enough to have multiple toilets has all of their porcelain thrones hooked up to the same network of pipes leading to one big drain hole exiting the building. Now, what would happen if every potty in the office was flushed at the same time? If the main drain wasn?t built to handle the flow, you would have a very messy problem on your hands. Can Your Business Handle a Super Flush?Engineers prepare for this potential problem and design their plumbing systems to be able to handle a maximum flush scenario where all the building?s toilets flush at the same time. Due to this risk, new sports stadiums participate in an event called a ?super flush? before officially opening. At a super flush event, hundreds of fans take positions at every toilet in the stadium to simultaneously flush each one. Don?t believe us? Here’s an example of a super flush event from Florida Atlantic University before they opened their new stadium. For the event, 100 FAU faithful reported for duty and flushed all 365 stalls. Go Owls! Is your company?s computer network prepared for a super flush, more commonly referred to as a virtual peak flow test? What would happen if every employee in your office hit ?print? at the exact same time? Due to the fact that a single print job takes up a significant amount of bandwidth, a printer super flush would likely cripple your network causing your system to experience downtime–which would be the equivalent (though less messy) of a failed super flush at a sports stadium during a playoff game.  A Print Server, Your #1 Print SolutionThe best way to have your network pass a virtual peak flow test is to grab a monkey wrench and install a print server solution from White Mountain IT Services. It?s the job of the print server to handle all of the print traffic on your company?s network. That way, your main servers that host your business-critical applications won?t be clogged if there?s a sudden and unexpected burst of print jobs. How?s that for Sweet Relief! With a print server from White Mountain IT Services redirecting all print traffic to a dedicated server giving you expanded printing options, like increased printing controls, your network will be freed up to handle all of your business-related traffic at high-flow speeds. There?s nothing quite like the satisfaction you receive from a network where everything works at the push of a lever. For more information, reach out to White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.